Hazelton is a village located at the junction of the Bulkley and

Skeena River The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose n ...

s in northern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada. It was founded in 1866 and in 2011 had a population of 305. The nearby larger community of

New Hazelton New Hazelton is a district municipality on Highway 16 in northwest British Columbia, Canada. It is situated northeast of Terrace and northwest of Smithers and in 2016 had a population of 580 people, a decrease of 12.9% comparing to 2011. New ...

is the northernmost point of the

Yellowhead Highway The Yellowhead Highway (french: Route Yellowhead) is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western ...

, a major interprovincial highway which runs from

Prince Rupert, British Columbia Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Its location is on Kaien Island near the Alaskan panhandle. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and has a population of 12 ...

, to

Portage la Prairie Portage la Prairie () is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. As of 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area of the city was . Portage la Prairie is approximately west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Hi ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

. The Hazelton area comprises two municipalities (the Village of Hazelton and District of New Hazelton), three unincorporated settlements (

South Hazelton South Hazelton is an unincorporated community along the Skeena River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is situated on the Yellowhead Highway (Highway 16), northeast of Terrace and northwest of Smithers and in 2016 had a population ...

, Two Mile and the Kispiox Valley), four

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

’ villages: three of which are of the

Gitxsan Gitxsan (also spelled Gitksan) are an Indigenous people in Canada whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English (: means "people of" and : means "the River of Mist"). Gitksan territory encompasses approxi ...

people (

Gitanmaax Hazelton is a village located at the junction of the Bulkley and Skeena Rivers in northern British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1866 and in 2011 had a population of 305. The nearby larger community of New Hazelton is the northernmost point ...

Glen Vowell Glen Vowell is an Indian reserve community of the Gitxsan people in the Hazelton area of the Skeena Country of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the west side of the Skeena River between Hazelton and Kispiox. Its traditional ...

and

Kispiox Kispiox is a Gitxsan (often known also as Gitksan, due to eastern and western dialects) village of approximately 550 in the Kispiox Valley, at the confluence of the Kispiox and Skeena Rivers in British Columbia. Located north of Hazelton, the c ...

) and A

Wetʼsuwetʼen The Wetʼsuwetʼen ( ) are a First Nation who live on the Bulkley River and around Burns Lake, Broman Lake, and François Lake in the northwestern Central Interior of British Columbia. The endonym Wetʼsuwetʼen means "People of the Wa Dzun ...

people, the Hagwilget.

First Nations history

The Hazeltons are home to the

and Wet'suwet'en

Old Hazelton and Two Mile

Hazelton is one of the oldest settlements in northern British Columbia; its European settlement dates back to 1866 when the

Collins Overland telegraph Collins may refer to: People Surname Given name * Collins O. Bright (1917–?), Sierra Leonean diplomat * Collins Chabane (1960–2015), South African Minister of Public Service and Administration * Collins Cheboi (born 1987), Kenyan middle- ...

went through. Hazelton was the original gateway and staging area for the

Omineca Gold Rush The Omineca Gold Rush was a gold rush in British Columbia, Canada in the Omineca region of the Northern Interior of the province. Gold was first discovered there in 1861, but the rush didn't begin until late in 1869 with the discovery at Vital Cree ...

of 1869-73. It also had the only proper hospital for hundreds of miles in any direction. Another, less appreciated, distinctions was in having dozens of roaming, foraging and howling

sled dog A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in harness, most commonly a sled over snow. Sled dogs have been used in the Arctic for at least 8,000 years and, along with watercraft, were the only transportation in Arctic areas ...

s, as nearly everyone had their own team and many were allowed to run free. Transportation options got better in 1891 when the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

’s

sternwheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were w ...

''Caledonia'' arrived from Port Essington. As the head of navigation on the Skeena, Hazelton played host to more than a dozen sternwheelers throughout the next twenty-two years. Two Mile, a community two miles out of Hazelton, during the gold rush and rail construction had a stopping house and a prosperous red-light district. It currently houses 85% of the population in town. Soon after 1868 Thomas Hankin, father of

Constance Cox Constance Cox (25 October 1912 – 8 July 1998) was a British script writer and playwright, born in Sutton, Surrey. Life and career Cox was born Constance Shaw in Sutton, Surrey, in 1912. She married Norman Cox, a fighter pilot, who was kille ...

marked out a town site at confluence of the Skeena River and the Bulkley River. He named it Hazelton because of the large number of hazelnuts ripening at the time.

New Hazelton and South Hazelton

The 1903 announcement that the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

would come through near Hazelton, caused a flurry of excitement and hundreds of settlers poured into the district, buying whatever land they could. Everyone was certain there was a fortune to be made and Hazelton was widely advertised as the "Spokane of Canada". What made Hazelton even more attractive was her mines, the Silver Standard, and the Rocher de Boule. In 1911, two rival townsites, Robert Kelly’s New Hazelton and the

Grand Trunk Pacific The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

’s South Hazelton, both came into existence and competed to sell the most lots. Thus, the original Hazelton was called "Old" and together they became known as the "Three Hazeltons". Where the railway station would be built was an issue for many years until both South and New Hazelton received one.

The first car in Hazelton 1911

The first car, a

Flanders 20 Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture ...

, arrived in Hazelton on the evening of October 4, 1911. It came from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. The railway from Prince Rupert would not be completed until 1912, so it was brought in overland from Seattle. None of the people in town believed that story, as it was nearly impossible to walk into Hazelton overland in 1911, much less drive. The next day everyone went to go see the car where it was parked in front of the Hazelton Hotel and questioned the owner, PE Sands, on how he had accomplished the feat. At a banquet held in his honour later that evening, Sands revealed his secret. He had brought along a mechanic and they had often had to disassemble the car and load it onto mules. Clearly they'd had enough of doing that by the time they reached Hazelton. They packed the car up on a sternwheeler and went to Skeena Crossing ( Gitsegukla), where the car was loaded on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway for the trip to Prince Rupert. There the car was loaded on a coastal steamer for the trip back to Seattle. At a banquet given in Seattle by the Pacific Highway Association in November, he was presented with the Challoner & Mitchell trophy, a solid 14 ct. gold medallion in the shape of a small wheel, now owned by the Village of Hazelton. The automobile is now on display at the Kittitas County Historical Museum in

Ellensburg, Washington Ellensburg is a city in and the county seat of Kittitas County, Washington, United States. It is located just east of the Cascade Range near the junction of Interstate 90 and Interstate 82. The population was 18,666 at the 2020 census. and was ...

Climate

Hazelton has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dfb''). Winters are cold but are milder than what the latitude may suggest, owing to

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

air masses. The average temperature in January is and from December to February, there are an average of 32 days where the maximum temperature reaches or surpasses freezing. However, Arctic air masses can push temperatures below , occurring on average three days per year. The average annual snowfall is . Summers are warm, with a July daytime high of although night time temperatures are cool, with a July low of . In an average summer, there are seven days where the temperature exceeds . The average annual precipitation is , with March and April being the driest months and October through January being the wetter months. The record high was on August 20, 1977 and the record low was on January 8, 1991.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Hazelton had a population of 257 living in 113 of its 125 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 313. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable people

* Cataline – a well-known packer. He served Hazelton throughout most of his career and also chose to retire in Hazelton. * Sperry Cline –

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

veteran, policeman and author *

Simon Gunanoot Simon Gunanoot (1874 – October 1933) was a prosperous Gitxsan man and a merchant in the Kispiox Valley region of Hazelton, British Columbia, Canada. He lived with his wife and children on a large ranch. A posse sought him after a murder but he ...

– respected Gitxsan Man *

Dave Hancock David Graeme Hancock (born August 10, 1955) is a Canadian lawyer and was the 15th premier of Alberta in 2014. Since 2017, he has served as a judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta. From 1997 to 2014, he was a Member of the Legislative As ...

– 15th premier of Alberta *

Carol Huynh Carol Huynh (; born 16 November 1980) is a retired Canadian freestyle wrestler. Huynh was the first gold medalist for Canada in women's wrestling and was the first gold medallist for Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She is also the 2010 Co ...

– 2008 Freestyle Wrestling Olympic gold medalist * Billy ThunderKloud - singer/entertainer, Nashville recording artist, 1975 Outstanding Indian of the Year, hereditary chief * Dr. Horace Wrinch – arrived in Hazelton 1900. Built the first hospital in the northern interior of BC to serve both Indigenous & non-Indigenous communities. He was a doctor and surgeon; also a Methodist minister, farmer, magistrate, community leader, politician (MLA).

Attractions

* 'Ksan Historical Village is a world-famous native heritage site located right where the Bulkley and Skeena rivers meet. *

Hagwilget Canyon Bridge Hagwilget Canyon Bridge is a suspension bridge over the Hagwilget Canyon on the Bulkley River, at the Wet'suwet'en village of Hagwilget, British Columbia. The current bridge was constructed in 1931, and later reinforced in 1990. Three previous ...

is one of North America's highest suspension bridges. *

Steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...

fishing can be done at the nearby Kispiox River.

Special events

* Kispiox Valley Rodeo is held the first weekend in June, * Kispiox Valley Music Festival is held the last weekend of July. * Pioneer Day takes place on the second Saturday of August. * Gitxsan Cultural Days takes place on the third weekend in August.

Book references

* ''The Far Land'', Eva MacLean * ''The Skeena River of Destiny'', Dr. RG Large * ''Pioneer Legacy Chronicles of the Lower Skeena River'', Norma Bennet * ''A Thousand Blunders, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Northern British Columbia'', Frank Leonard * ‘’Barner, A. Surgeon of the Skeena : a brief résumé of the life and work of Rev. Horace C. Wrinch, M.D., D.D., Hazelton, B.C’’. The Committee on Missionary Education, Literature Dept., Woman’s Missionary Society: ndthe United Church of Canada, 94?* ‘’The unmasking of Ksan’’. Eric Wilson

Musical references

* "Hazelton", on ''Hazeltons'' by

Justin Vernon Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon (born April 30, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the primary songwriter and frontman of indie folk band Bon Iver. Known for his distinct falsetto voic ...

Notes

External links

* {{authority control Villages in British Columbia Gitxsan Skeena Country Populated places in the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine Hudson's Bay Company trading posts